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Bedtime Query

7 replies

Abi1987 · 18/01/2017 23:36

Hi everyone, so just need a little advice on what to do about my 9 month old. He has 3 naps in the day, one at 10am, one at 1pm and then a short one at 3.30. He has his bath at 6.30 and is fast asleep by 7pm after his bottle. The only issue is, he wakes up 1 or 2 hours later wide awake wanting to play! I've tried stopping his last nap, I've tried leaving him in his cot and I've tried moving his bath time earlier and later, nothing works, he still wakes up it seems he's treating the sleep after his bath like a 4th nap. Can anyone help??

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FATEdestiny · 19/01/2017 10:40

I would say it's time to drop that teatime power nap. 9 months would be about right for dropping to 2 nap days.

The rule of thumb timings for 2 nap days is 2-3-4. First nap 2 hours after waking, next nap 3 hours after waking from morning nap and bedtime 4 hours after waking from afternoon nap.

These are give-or-take timings. They assume two 1.5h naps and 12h daytime. If you are getting 2h+ naps it might be 2-2-3, for example.

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Abi1987 · 20/01/2017 01:16

So basically he's getting too much sleep and that's causing him to have broken sleep? Even if I stop his third nap he still woke up after that two hours, I tried it once, should I still carry on trying? It seems like a bad habit he's got into, no matter what time I do his bath and bed he wakes up 2 hours later and then doesn't settle until 1am

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NapQueen · 20/01/2017 01:18

Could you offer a porridge style supper too? Maybe he is hungry?

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BastardGoDarkly · 20/01/2017 01:30

It'll take more than one day to change his behaviour, drop nap, see what happens after a fortnight.

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FATEdestiny · 20/01/2017 11:16

he's getting too much sleep and that's causing him to have broken sleep

Noooooo!

Not too much sleep. Just the timings need to change. The morning and afternoon naps should naturally get longer when the third nap is out of his routine.

At 9 months I was getting 4-5 hours of daytime naps (two 2h-2h30m naps) plus 11 hours at night from my youngest.

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Kariana · 20/01/2017 15:01

As others have said one day with make no difference, you need to give it at least two weeks before you say it's not working!

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Abi1987 · 20/01/2017 15:10

Thanks so much everyone, I will try that and persist! It's so hard being a first time mum with no one to help. I really appreciate your advice and replies